Plasma deposited diamond-like carbon films for large neural arrays

To understand how large systems of neurons communicate, we need to develop methods for growing patterned networks of large numbers of neurons. We have found that diamond-like carbon thin films formed by energetic deposition from a filtered vacuum arc carbon plasma can serve as "neuron friendly" substrates for the growth of large neural arrays. Lithographic masks can be used to form patterns of diamond-like carbon, and regions of selective neuronal attachment can form patterned neural arrays. In the work described here, we used glass microscope slides as substrates on which diamond-like carbon was deposited. PC-12 rat neurons were then cultured on the treated substrates and cell growth monitored. Neuron growth showed excellent contrast, with prolific growth on the treated surfaces and very low growth on the untreated surfaces. Here we describe the vacuum arc plasma deposition technique employed, and summarize results demonstrating that the approach can be used to form large patterns of neurons.Щоб зрозуміти, як взаємодіють між собою великі системи нейронів, ми повинні розвивати методи вирощування рельєфних структур великого числа нейронів. Ми установили, що алмазоподібні вуглецеві тонкі плівки, що утворюються в результаті могутнього опромінення фільтрованою вуглецевою плазмою вакуумної дуги, можуть бути використані в ролі «нейроно-дружелюбніх» субстанцій для вирощування великих нейронних структур. Літографічні маски можуть бути використані для вормування алмазоподібної вуглецевої структури , а області селективного нейронного приєднання можуть утворювати систематичні нейронні структури. В експериментах, описаних нижче, як підкладку ми використовували предметні стекла мікроскопа, на які наносилися алмазоподібні вуглецеві покриття. Потім на опромінених підкладках були вирощені щурячі нейрони PC-12 і спостерігався ріст кліток. Спостерігався величезний контраст у рості нейронів, від багатого росту на опромінених поверхнях до слабкого на неопромінених. У даній роботі описана використовувана для опромінення вакуумно-дугова установка й узагальнені результати, що показують, що даний метод може бути використаний для формування великих структур нейронів.Чтобы понять, как взаимодействуют между собой большие системы нейронов, мы должны развивать методы выращивания рельефных структур большого числа нейронов. Мы установили, что алмазоподобные углеродные тонкие пленки, образующиеся в результате мощного облучения фильтрованной углеродной плазмой вакуумной дуги, могут быть использованы в качестве «нейроно-дружелюбных» субстанций для выращивания больших нейронных структур. Литографические маски могут применяться для формирования алмазоподобной углеродной структуры, а области селективного нейронного присоединения могут образовывать систематические нейронные структуры. В экспериментах, описываемых ниже, в качестве подложки мы использовали предметные стекла микроскопа, на которые наносились алмазоподобные углеродные покрытия. Затем на облученных подложках были выращены крысиные нейроны PC-12 и наблюдался рост клеток. Отслежен огромный контраст в росте нейронов, от обильного роста на облученных поверхностях до слабого на необлученных. В данной работе описана используемая для облучения вакуумно- дуговая установка и обобщены результаты, показывающие, что данный метод может быть использован для формирования больших структур нейронов

A Review Characterizing 25 Ecosystem Challenges to Be Addressed by an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management in Europe

The impacts of fisheries on ocean resources are no longer considered in isolation but should account for broader ecosystem effects. However, ongoing ecosystem-wide changes added to the inherent dynamics of marine ecosystems, create challenges for fisheries and fisheries management by affecting our ability to ensure future fishing opportunities and sustainable use of the seas. By reviewing a corpus of fisheries science literature, we contribute to informing managers and policymakers with considerations of the various threats to fisheries and the marine ecosystems that support them. We identify and describe 25 ecosystem challenges and 7 prominent families of management options to address them. We capture the challenges acting within three broad categories: (i) fishing impacts on the marine environments and future fishing opportunities, (ii) effects of environmental conditions on fish and fishing opportunities, and (iii) effects of context in terms of socioeconomics, fisheries management, and institutional set-up on fisheries. Our review shows that, while most EU fisheries are facing a similar array of challenges, some of them are specific to regions or individual fisheries. This is reflected in selected regional cases taking different perspectives to exemplify the challenges along with fishery-specific cases. These cases include the dramatic situation of the Baltic Sea cod, facing an array of cumulative pressures, the multiple and moving ecosystem interactions that rely on the North Sea forage fish facing climate change, the interaction of fishing and fish stocks in a fluctuating mixed fishery in the Celtic Sea, the bycatch of marine mammals and seabirds and habitat degradation in the Bay of Biscay, and finally the under capacity and lack of fundamental knowledge on some features of the EU Outermost Regions. In addition to these ecoregion specific findings, we discuss the outcomes of our review across the whole of European waters and we conclude by recognizing that there are knowledge gaps regarding the direction of causality, nonlinear responses, and confounding effects. All of the challenges we identify and characterize may guide further data collection and research coordination to improve our fundamental understanding of the system and to monitor real changes within it, both of which are required to inform an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM). An European EAFM could build upon an array of management measures currently tailored for fisheries management only, including promoting funding interdisciplinary research and ecosystem monitoring. Such integrative management should reduce uncertainties in environmental, social and economic trends, and lower the risk for disruptive events or ecosystem effects with far-reaching consequences, including a shift toward less productive marine ecosystems.En prens

C-terminal citrullinated peptide alters antigen-specific APC:T cell interactions leading to breach of immune tolerance

In rheumatoid arthritis, the emergence of anti-citrullinated autoimmunity is associated with HLA-antigen-T cell receptor complexes. The precise mechanisms underpinning this breach of tolerance are not well understood. Porphyromonas gingivalis expresses an enzyme capable of non-endogenous C-terminal citrullination with potential to generate citrullinated autoantigens. Here we document how C-terminal citrullination of ovalbumin peptide323-339 alters the interaction between antigen-presenting cells and OTII T cells to induce functional changes in responding T cells. These data reveal that C-terminal citrullination is sufficient to breach T cell peripheral tolerance in vivo and reveal the potential of C-terminal citrullination to lower the threshold for T cell activation. Finally, we demonstrate a role for the IL-2/STAT5/CD25 signalling axis in breach of tolerance. Together, our data identify a tractable mechanism and targetable pathways underpinning breach of tolerance in rheumatoid arthritis and provide new conceptual insight into the origins of anti-citrullinated autoimmunity

Multiwavelength studies of MHD waves in the solar chromosphere: An overview of recent results

The chromosphere is a thin layer of the solar atmosphere that bridges the relatively cool photosphere and the intensely heated transition region and corona. Compressible and incompressible waves propagating through the chromosphere can supply significant amounts of energy to the interface region and corona. In recent years an abundance of high-resolution observations from state-of-the-art facilities have provided new and exciting ways of disentangling the characteristics of oscillatory phenomena propagating through the dynamic chromosphere. Coupled with rapid advancements in magnetohydrodynamic wave theory, we are now in an ideal position to thoroughly investigate the role waves play in supplying energy to sustain chromospheric and coronal heating. Here, we review the recent progress made in characterising, categorising and interpreting oscillations manifesting in the solar chromosphere, with an impetus placed on their intrinsic energetics.Comment: 48 pages, 25 figures, accepted into Space Science Review

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Search for new physics in events with opposite-sign leptons, jets, and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model (BSM) in final states with a pair of opposite-sign isolated leptons accompanied by jets and missing transverse energy. The search uses LHC data recorded at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 5 inverse femtobarns. Two complementary search strategies are employed. The first probes models with a specific dilepton production mechanism that leads to a characteristic kinematic edge in the dilepton mass distribution. The second strategy probes models of dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude a region of the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Additional information related to detector efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM physics not considered in this paper.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the Lambda(b) cross section and the anti-Lambda(b) to Lambda(b) ratio with Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda decays in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The Lambda(b) differential production cross section and the cross section ratio anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) are measured as functions of transverse momentum pt(Lambda(b)) and rapidity abs(y(Lambda(b))) in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurements are based on Lambda(b) decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi Lambda, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to an opposite-sign muon pair and Lambda to proton pion, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 inverse femtobarns. The product of the cross section times the branching ratio for Lambda(b) to J/Psi Lambda versus pt(Lambda(b)) falls faster than that of b mesons. The measured value of the cross section times the branching ratio for pt(Lambda(b)) > 10 GeV and abs(y(Lambda(b))) < 2.0 is 1.06 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.12 nb, and the integrated cross section ratio for anti-Lambda(b)/Lambda(b) is 1.02 +/- 0.07 +/- 0.09, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters

Measurement of isolated photon production in pp and PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Isolated photon production is measured in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energies of 2.76 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta|<1.44 and transverse energies ET between 20 and 80 GeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measured ET spectra are found to be in good agreement with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions. The ratio of PbPb to pp isolated photon ET-differential yields, scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions, is consistent with unity for all PbPb reaction centralities.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters